The Thug Leader[2] is an antagonist in Going Commando with a brief role in Secret Agent Clank. He was the leader and CEO[3] of Thugs-4-Less, a mercenary-for-hire organization based in the Bogon Galaxy, that worked for Angela Cross and later Megacorp. At first, the Thug Leader was an adversary of Ratchet and Clank by contract, though as time went on, it became personal for him.
After Ratchet and Clank defeated him, the Thug Leader was not heard from again until he appeared in Secret Agent Clank as a prisoner, despite the Thugs-4-Less remaining active, and was absent from Into the Nexus and Rift Apart when the Thugs were hired by Neftin Prog and Dr. Nefarious respectively.
History[]
Going Commando[]
The Thug Leader was contacted by Angela Cross, at the time the Unknown Thief, who requested the Thugs' protection for security.[4] She paid top dollar for their protection.[5] The Leader then sent her employees to meet her on planet Oozla, and also sent Thugs-4-Less fighters to ambush Ratchet at the Wupash Nebula and the Maktar Resort. After these attempts failed, he arrived to attack Ratchet in Megapolis, Endako, in his helicopter, during "Visit Clank's apartment", as he was disappointed that his employees had not yet defeated Ratchet.[6] Ratchet destroyed the Thug Leader's helicopter, though he escaped.
The Thug Leader in his mech.
The Thug Leader then prepared for the Company Picnic on Sunday,[7] a bonding exercise, which Angela Cross was furious about and threatened to end the contract.[5] The Thug Leader later sent his forces to Canal City, Notak, to protect the Thief while she was collecting chemicals. After this, he decided to ambush Ratchet and Clank in Lunar City on the moon orbiting Dobbo. In "Defeat the Thug Leader", Clank fought his giant mech suit as Giant Clank, after which, the Mathematician allowed him and Ratchet to enter the Megacorp Games. The Thug Leader returned to his flagship.
Shortly after, the Thug Leader returned to his flagship, and received a phone call from Megacorp. Megacorp offered the Thugs-4-Less a more lucrative contract to protect Abercrombie Fizzwidget, believing he was going senile in his old age.[8] While the Leader was apprehensive to the idea of changing employer, believing it would be unethical, Megacorp offered the Leader a much more lucrative contract, and he accepted.[9] Megacorp paid the Thugs to eliminate Ratchet and Clank, and the Leader incentivized his employees by offering a free pizza party to the squad that eliminated them.[8] The Leader also took over Angela's flying lab.[10]
The Thug Leader on his flagship.
Under their new employer, the leader sent the Thugs to Silver City, Boldan, to protect Mr. Fizzwidget. When Ratchet found the Fizzwidget bot, the Thug Leader caught and arrested him, saying that he intended to harm him, despite it clearly being a robot.[11] He then imprisoned Ratchet and Clank in his new Thugs-4-Less Prison, though they promptly escaped. The Thug Leader later visited Megacorp's distribution facility on Smolg, which Megacorp claimed was shipping paperweights. He suspected they were instead shipping Protopets, and was preparing to demand Megacorp grant them a larger contract and more of a role.[12]
The Thug Leader kidnaps Angela.
Around this time, Angela tried to sneak around Snivelak, the Thugs' homeworld, to learn more. The Thug Leader then kidnapped her and sent her to headquarters. She was, however, able to steal the Leader's log entry telescreen from his pocket.[13] After Ratchet followed her transmission to the Thugs-4-Less fleet on Gorn, the Thug Leader sent Ratchet a frustrated, threatening message to them, demanding they return to the Solana Galaxy or he would be furious. However, in doing so, he transmitted his exact location to them, allowing them to follow him to Snivelak with ease.[14]
In "Rescue Angela", Ratchet and Clank defeated the Thug Leader, this time in a new Giganto-Mech suit. Ratchet and Clank destroyed the suit and freed Angela, at which point, the Thugs-4-Less ceased their work for Megacorp.
Secret Agent Clank[]
A camera view of Ratchet talking to the Thug Leader on the Prison Planet.
The Thug Leader appeared in the Prison Planet in the Solana Galaxy, where Ratchet was locked up during Secret Agent Clank. The corrupt warden granted Ratchet a meeting with him, and the Thug Leader recalled the time Ratchet had shot his helicopter down back in Megapolis, and threatened Ratchet with more pain to come.
Characteristics[]
The Thug Leader has a large (larger than any other thug seen), muscular body, with a bald head, very broad shoulders, and muscular arms. He wears a black tank top with a red insignia and an ammo sash around his shoulder. In combat, the Thug Leader always drives a vehicle, either his helicopter or one of his two giant mech suits.
The Thug Leader aims to maintain a threatening image. When announcing the employee picnic, he demanded the lights stay off for the transmission, and was furious when an employee violated this.[7] His ex-wife claimed he had a nasty temper.[13] However, he was also generous to his employees, having employee picnics as bonding exercises[5] and offering free pizza parties as incentives for employees to do good work.[8] He also seemed to want to provide a good service in his prison, caring for Ratchet and Clank's opinion and even catering to their dietary requirements.[15]
The Thug Leader is unintelligent, as he would often be fooled for brief seconds, before realizing it quickly afterwards, such as when Angela pretended to be a kitten.[16] He frequently stumbles over his words when trying to insult or threaten an opponent, losing his trail of thought, such as when trying to insult Angela after she threatened to pull the contract,[5] and later to Ratchet and Clank when trying to threaten them to leave the galaxy.[14] He was also particularly poor with numbers. He was unable to name the sector of the Feltzin System aside from "1-2-3-4-5",[7] and was unable to count the number of Protopets in a shipment, rounding them to "three point five zillion", an absurd number.[12]
The Thug Leader appeared to be motivated primarily by cash. He rationalized his whole business as simply "trying to making a living here",[14] and though initially apprehensive, was quickly persuaded to abandon Angela's contract when Megacorp offered him a more lucrative one.[9]
Behind the scenes[]
Concept art.
When the Thug Leader meets Ratchet in "Visit Clank's apartment", he uses the plural "morons" and "yous".[6] Unused dialogue for that scene contains further lines of dialogue after the first by Clank, showing that Clank was originally going to be present in this scene.[17] It is likely that these lines were removed because the player may not have rescued Clank at this stage. This happened because the voice-over and writing schedules did not work in five week cycles like the other teams.[18]
Citations[]
- ↑ Going Commando, Monsterpedia
- ↑ Going Commando, credits
- ↑ Secret Agent Clank script § "High Risk vs. High Stakes (gameplay)"
- ↑ Going Commando script § "Thief hires Thugs-4-Less"
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Going Commando script § "The Company Picnic"
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Going Commando script § "Visit Clank's apartment (gameplay)"
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Going Commando script § "Thugs-4-Less Employee Meeting"
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 Going Commando script § "A Free Pizza Party to the Squad who Bags Him"
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Going Commando script § "Thugs-4-Less Gets a New Employer"
- ↑ Going Commando script § "Search the rocket silo (gameplay)"
- ↑ Going Commando script § "Find Mr. Fizzwidget (gameplay)"
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 Going Commando script § "A shipment of... paperweights"
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 Going Commando script § "Rescue Angela (gameplay)"
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 Going Commando script § "Thug Leader goes off on Ratchet and Clank"
- ↑ Going Commando script § "Thugs-4-Less Prison Video Brochure"
- ↑ Going Commando script § "Meow"
- ↑ Going Commando unused dialogue § "Going Commando release"
- ↑ Ratchet & Clank Wiki 2017 interview with Mike Stout
References[]
- Insomniac Games (2003). Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando [Game]. Sony Computer Entertainment. PlayStation 2.
- Ratchet & Clank Wiki (2017). Interview with Mike Stout. Interview conducted by Technobliterator.